The Atari ST (for me, a 520 ST+) filled the gap between entertainment-centric home computers (Commodore C64) and PCs that could run Linux (some no-name with Int

The Atari ST (for me, a 520 ST+) filled the gap between entertainment-centric home computers (Commodore C64) and PCs that could run Linux (some no-name with Intel i486DX-33), you could program it in so many languages (ST Basic, GFA Basic, Pascal, Modula-2, C, Forth etc.). With a dream black/white monitor, this was a wonderful machine to improve one's programming skills on with structured programming and to do systems programming (TOS/GEM) on - it was the monitor and the available range of compilers that made me want an ST ASAP. (At the same time, the Amiga had more powerful graphics hardware, but was very slow if you did not have a harddrive and "Kickstart ROMs", as it originally required two floppy disks to start up, not just one. The Amiga had a sophisticated OS but I always felt it was too demanding for the hardware it was running on.)